Church communication in the digital world is more impactful than you may think. It’s not just about sharing announcements from the stage anymore, it’s about reaching people who want to learn more about your church before they ever step through the doors on Sunday morning. Whether it’s reaching people through Facebook livestreams, Instagram posts, or weekly updates on your Church’s website, every post is important. It’s a chance not just to reach new faces, but to keep your current church family connected and informed about what’s going on. Today we’re going to discuss the do’s and don’ts on how to effectively reach your church audience in the best way possible.

Social Media

DO: Make sure your Instagram feed is a mixture of photos, graphics, and videos.

Your Instagram feed should always show the full picture of your church and to keep it interesting, you want to have different varieties on your feed. Doing this will also help reach different audiences. For example, a creative like me loves to see nicely edited photos and videos on Sunday morning. If I see that type of content on a church feed I am most likely going to visit there when looking for a church. Good photos capturing authentic moments like people worshipping, serving, or giving others a hug, is a great way to showcase how your church is on Sunday. Graphics are perfect for announcements, sermon notes, or reminders about upcoming events. And finally, a GOOD video is a quick and creative way to bring your church to life. Clips from service, testimonies, or behind-the scene moments can help people feel connected even if they cannot attend your church in person sometimes.

DON’T: Post the same type of content over and over.

If every post starts to feel and look the same, your feed can start to feel very repetitive. This can cause your audience to scroll past it and find another church’s Instagram feed that feels more community-based. For example, if I go to your church’s Instagram page and I only see graphics for events (even if they are good graphics) I’m going to click out of it. When I go to someone’s feed on a social media app that is used for pictures, that’s what I want to see! I want to see community and people interacting with each other. I want to see what your worship team and pastor looks like because if I can feel the emotion in a church’s post/feed, I’m going to absolutely consider going there! This is also why it is important to hire someone who knows how to run social media and edit photo/videos.

DO: Keep your messages clear and centered on people.

The attention span in 2025 is extremely short, people scroll fast. So make sure to be quick in getting your message across. Don’t drag anything out like making videos longer than a minute on Instagram reels, or using more than 10 slides for photos. People are going to get tired of scrolling through and instead scroll past it. What you say and show matters because it can impact what your audience does next. Use photos and videos of real people from your church instead of stock images to create that genuine connection between you and your audience.

DON’T: Overcomplicate your message or make it all about information.

If your posts are overloaded with text, long captions, or way too many details, people will get tired fast. So avoid trying to cram a lot of things into one post. It’s okay to post multiple times a day if you have a large audience because they expect that from you! Social media isn’t just about giving information, it’s more about creating connection through people’s faces, stories and moments they can relate to. It’s about spreading the Gospel in little ways so people will want to visit and hear more of God’s Word. So make sure to keep it simple, heartfelt and focused on the Lord and your community!

Broadcasting

DO: Make sure volunteers are trained and confident in their roles.

It is very important for everyone in their home church to serve others. Knowing what you’re good at in your everyday life can help you when finding where to serve at church! And if you’re not yet confident in a certain skill but want to learn, that’s perfectly okay! For example, if someone wants to help with broadcasting at church, but has never worked with cameras or a video switcher before, make sure they receive the proper training. Take multiple Sundays to walk them through how the equipment works, explain the flow of your typical service, and explain to them why their role is so important. Depending on how big your church may be, hundreds of people could be watching from home and you want them to watch a stream that’s smooth and has little to no mistakes in it if possible. Mistakes will happen but consistent mess ups could end up taking away what God may be doing in someone’s heart at home.

DON’T: Assume volunteers know what to do without direction.

Even if someone does have some sort of experience from their past with running cameras or sound, every church does things differently and has different gear. So it is important to explain everything instead of just handing over a headset or camera and expect them to figure it out on their own. This can cause them to get frustrated or burn out, causing them to not want to serve. And we want people to want to serve God’s people! So take the time to pour into these people and communicate early, answer questions and give lots of encouragement and feedback after every service.